Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a transport device and a transport method for a container treatment plant.
Description of the Prior Art
A container treatment plant which can comprise, for example, a blow moulding machine, a cleaning machine, a filling machine, a labeling machine, a packaging machine, etc. is employed, for example, in the beverage industry for production and/or filling and/or packaging of containers. Containers are in particular cans, glass bottles or plastic bottles. The containers are transported by a transport device to a container treatment plant and away from the container treatment plant.
It is necessary in some container treatment plants to mount plant parts in different rooms. This can be the case, for example, if a closure between the rooms has to be present because of reasons regarding the static state or fire protection. In such a case, the containers are to be transported from room to room so that the transport device is to be conducted through an opening in the separation of the rooms. However, as needed, there should also be possible a separation of the rooms at the transport device because of, for example, reasons regarding fire protection. In this case, the corresponding provisions of fire protection have to be met, too. Usually, there has to be provided a fire protection door or a fire protection flap, which is closed in the case of fire.
To solve this problem, tiltable/expandable transporters were developed which are guided through the opening in a wall during normal operation and are tilted for closing the fire protection door or fire protection flap. Such tiltable/expandable transporters are employed according to a solution performed with a roller transition between two adjoining transporters which are provided for transporting the containers from the one room into the other room. However, transporters comprising a roller transition are inappropriate for the transport of most of the containers. A further problem lies in that the containers stop on the transition between the transporters and, due to this, fall into the range of a fire protection door when tilting the transporter. This leads, thus, possibly to jams in the fire protection door so that the fire protection door cannot be closed.
According to another solution, the tiltable/expandable transporters are implemented with driven chain. In such tiltable transporters, a clearing control is necessary and the conveying plant is very cost-intensive because of the separate drive.